Design Wall Monday 12 - 1 - 2014

We had a great time at the beach over Thanksgiving! Unfortunately, the weather was pretty cold and occasionally really raw.  Thanksgiving dinner was interesting and we'll probably not do that again.  It was crowded and noisy but the food was plentiful and most of it was really tasty.  Here's my big creative activity this week. 

One sock finished, one at the heal flap. 

I did take lots of pictures of the grands though.  It was hard to get good pictures of Sophie as she doesn't want pictures taken.  Every once and a while I snuck a few pictures.  Ellie, on the other hand, seemed to sparkle when she heard the click of the cameras.

Before Sophie, Natalie and parents got here we went out for pancakes at Stack 'Em High.  We were surprised when they brought out this cute stack of pancakes for Ellie.  We all thought their pancakes were wonderful. Especially Ellie.  She pretty much ate the whole stack. 

It rained all day Wednesday so not much happened outdoors except running the three dogs outside for breaks.  Yuck! 

Thursday morning was cold but clear.  Pat, Aimee and Kevin ran in a 5K. They each earned a T Shirt that said Run, Eat, Nap.  They ran by our house twice so the rest of us stood by the roadside to cheer them on.  I was holding Ellie so I didn't get any photos. 

This box kept their attention off and on all weekend.  Sometimes it was a drum, sometimes it was a present, some times it was toy storage. It was great seeing them playing together so well.  Ok, so we had our share of complaints and catastrophes but overall playtime was great.

We tried to get some pictures for Christmas cards.  Jenny and Brian got some great ones of the girls at the beach.  But I got a picture after both of them let me brush their hair and put in new hair ties with pictures of the characters from Frozen on them. 

Photo shoot at the sound.  She doesn't mind those big headbands that hold her bows. She really is a cutie.  And, has a very even temperament.  When she had a dramatic moment it was because she was either too tired or too hungry.  She likes to eat and then  works it off.  She really wanted to go up and down the stairs which meant everyone had to keep an eye on her.

We took the dogs to the beach one day.  Cassie, Kevin's dog, would chase her ball forever.  She even got soaked by a couple of waves.  We kept the black dogs out of the water although Kona was happy to chase after Cassie for a bit.  Unfortunately, Raggs doesn't hear well (or has selective hearing) so he wasn't allowed to run free.  

Ellie and Raggs were watching what was happening out the front door as the car was loaded up.  Raggs is a great dog with the kids. He's so mellow and doesn't mind them playing with him.  I sometimes think they could use him as a pillow and he wouldn't bat an eye. 

I had very few goals for this week and I got them all accomplished! 

Week of November 24, 2014

Finish turquoise blue sock √

Start second turquoise blue sock√

Enjoy time with the grands: Ellie, Natalie and Sophia√

I've been so focused on finishing that one quilt I haven't shown you yet and then being at the beach house, I'm not sure what I need to do upstairs.  I do know the next item up on Ruthie is a Virginia Tech quilt made by Kay.  The rest of the goals are what I think needs to be done. 

Week of December 1, 2014

Start and finish Hokie quilt for Kay

Finish up blocks that need to be mailed out

Mail out blocks for various recipients

Continue knitting on turquoise blue sock

Order Christmas Cards

Get one of my quilts quilted

Clean quilt studio; put new fabrics away

Take some time this week to visit Patchwork Times to find links to Design Walls all over the internet. 

Happy Quilting All! 

Triangle Thursday #20

Scrap Zig Zag

This design is number 1334 in Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. Barbara Brackman says it might be attributed to Nancy Cabot but she doubts that. Hum, must be a mystery block. I’d like to see this with lots of different blocks.  I think I would keep the fabrics the same as I did here but then use all sorts of differently colored blocks.  Click here for a printer ready version of these instructions. 

Cutting directions are for 6”

Fabric	Number to cut	6”
Rectangles (med or light)	4	Cut 2” x 3 ½” rectangles
Triangles (same med or light)	4	Use 1 ½” template
Squares (dark)	4	Cut 2” x 2” squares
Triangles (same dark)	4	Use 1 ½” template

 Next lay out the pieces as shown in the finished block.

Sew the half square triangles to the square, press the seam to the square. Make sure you have the fabrics in the correct position.  Next sew the half square triangle unit to the rectangle.  Lay out the block again so you get everything in the correct order.

Sew the units into rows and then sew the rows together.  Voila! You are done with this block. One thing I like about this block is there is little that much match.  Just the center and it’s all the same color.









Poor Raggs.  He'd love to come help in the studio finishing but we won't let him.  Lonely little dog.  Kona could care less!

The floor has been started!  And, since I took this there's even more floor down.  But there is a lot of floor still to lay.  

Happy Quilting All! 

Scrap Squad 5 Revealed

My #5 scrap squad quilt was revealed Thursday on Quiltmaker's Quilty Pleasures blog.   It seems like a long time since I finished it.  There have been all sorts of things happening at Quilty Pleasures including a treasure hunt.  

When we received Bella Amore (aka #5)  I started browsing my stash right away.  I wanted to use as much from my stash as I could.  It is so easy to see what I have in yardage as it is stored on open book shelves in the studio.  I picked a piece I had purchased in a local quilt store when I lived in Pa.  I liked the whole look of the fabric:  the color, the design, even the background color.  With that fabric in hand I started grabbing "go withs."  I looked at the yardage area of the studio and in the boxes of fat quarters and odd pieces I have on top of the book cases.  Heck, I even looked in the old plastic containers where I used to keep my fabric. Really, only the dregs are in them.  In the end I didn't need to buy all that much.  I did add the luscious dark gold used for the inner border and some greens because I ran out of them.  That brighter turquoise got thrown out and a darker one took its place and was used for the backing. 

Although this looks complicated it really is only 3 blocks: a square, a half square triangle and a quarter square triangle.  That's it.  Amazing once you figure that out.  I really love Deb Tucker's Tucker Trimmer especially for doing quarter square triangle. You can find her videos for her various rulers here. Here are some of the units. 

I didn't like the large, light setting triangles in the original quilt that was in the November/December Quiltmaker magazine.  I tried to use some of the extra units and, gee whiz!  They all fit. Notice the turquoise half square triangle. Those are some of the extra units I used in place of setting triangles.  I played around with coloration and placement on the design wall and then started putting the quilt together.  I tried to have all seams abut however that was difficult.  In some places there are 8 seams coming together.  It was not a pretty scene when I got to the long arming.  


One thing I try hard to do is use long pieces for my borders.  Yes, I'll piece my borders if I have to but if I can I'll use a length.  To make sure I have all the length I need I often refold and then cut strips off the length of fabric to use in piecing my blocks.  See the main fabric up above?  Yep, I'd already taken off a strip to use in the center of the top.  

Because I was trying to finish this in a hurry, I decided to do an open stipple on it.  It worked well except where I tried to go "over" the bumps rather than around the bumps.  Oh well, live and learn. And, honestly, you can't really tell unless you look up close.  

 The quilt traveled with me during Thanksgiving so I could do a photo shoot someplace other than my own house and yard.  My son lives next to Bristoe Station Battlefield so we took the dogs, the quilts and cameras for a walk. It was fun to stage quilt pictures in a different location. In the photo above you can hardly tell there is a big road just beyond the fence. Hum, a quilt on a cannon?  It was hard to keep the quilt on the cannon and out of the bird residue! 

Just for fun I tried to get a picture of the 4 dogs, the quilt and the cannon. If you think it is hard to get a bunch of people to all look at you, keep their eyes open and snap a picture -- try dogs and a breeze!  Three out of four isn't bad. 

Kona, Homer and Raggs watching me take the picture, Cassie staring off in a different direction. 

This quilt now resides on the wall in my dining room.  I really love the colors in this one. And, it definitely is a scrappy quilt. 

Happy Quilting All!